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Attending Motss con 22

July 5th, 2009

Last weekend, rsc and I went to Portland, OR to attend the annual motss con. This was the 22nd one and we've been to the last 19. They've always been lots of fun - with lots of socializing, lots of eating, and some touristing.

It's interesting to reflect upon this in these days of social networking. net.motss was created as a Usenet Newsgroup in 1983 and as usenet matured (if you can call it that) the naming scheme changed and it became soc.motss. motss stands for members of the same sex - that name chosen because it was felt in those days if gay or lesbian or glbt were used in the name then some sites might not carry it.

It is an early example of a social network that became well established and after these many years still exists. This newsgroup like many others isn't as active as it was as things like LJ or Facebook have taken over and some ISPs such as Comcast & AT&T no longer carry it.

Many of the active participants have met face-to-face at local events, and at these cons. It was through this connection that we got involved in contra dancing and I'd say just about all our current friendships have come about through soc.motss and the dance community.

I'm going to post some more abut this con with some pictures soon. I've been stuck with deciding what to do in LJ or what in Facebook and thus did none thus far.